Dexter's modus operandi
Dexter's modus operandi serves not only to maximize the satisfaction he derives from his victims as all serial murderers do, but to minimize if not eliminate any forensic clues and evidence, and ensure that he does not target innocents. Selection Dexter spends a significant amount of time selecting each victim according to his adoptive father's code, the Code of Harry. Dexter targets multiple murderers who have both acted without regret and somehow evaded conventional justice. Preparation Dexter ritually prepares a "kill room" by completely swathing it in clear plastic tarp to catch all spilled blood, sweat, prints and other forensic evidence so as to leave no signs of the murder. As part of the ritual, he confronts his victims with their crimes by decorating the room with evidence or pictures of the victims. This has been taken to both extremes in certain situations. In once instance, Dexter decorated the kill room with the actual exhumed corpses of the killer's victims, while in another he quickly dispatches Lila after mailing her a postcard with a picture of Doakes on it. Capture The actual capture of his victims differs between the books and the television series. Television Series In the television series it usually entails approaching the victim from behind and injecting them with an anesthetic (specified to be an animal tranquilizer called etorphine hydrochloride, or M99), which renders his victims temporarily unconscious. The injection is a tradition established with his first victim, the hospital nurse. He used the alias Patrick Bateman (the serial killer protagonist of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho) to procure these tranquilizers. Books Other times, Dexter incapacitates his target by using either his hands (employing a rear naked choke hold on the TV series) or a garrote to cut off blood flow to the brain. In the books, as in the opening scene in the television series' pilot episode, he hides in the back seat of his victim's vehicle, then wraps a noose of fishing line around his victim's throat when they sit down. He then uses the threat of asphyxiation to force his victim to drive them to his prepared kill site. Once they arrive, he will either strangle them into unconsciousness or use the noose to drag them to the kill site proper. In such cases he anesthetizes them once he has informed them of his judgment. Ritual Killings When victims awaken, they are naked and secured to a table with plastic wrap, further securing stronger victims with duct tape. If he has not already done so, he confronts them with narrative evidence of their crimes. In the novels, the method usually involves an extended "exploration" with various sharp knives; in the television series, Dexter's favored method usually involves an immediately fatal wound to the heart, neck, or gut, with a variety of weapons. He occasionally varies his methods to fit particular victims; he kills Brian by cutting his throat with a silverware dinner knife; he stabs gang lord Little Chino in the chest with a machete; and impales Lila with a knife. He also kills his mother's killer, Jimenez Santos, in the same manner in which his mother was killed; by dismembering him with a chainsaw. Trophies Just before the murder, Dexter collects trophies from his victims so he can relive the experience. Dexter's trophy signature is to slice the victim's cheek with a surgical scalpel underneath the victim's right eye and to collect a small blood sample, which he preserves between two laboratory slides. In the TV show, Dexter keeps blood slides from all his victims neatly organized in a wooden filing box, which he hides inside his air conditioner; in the novels he keeps them in a rosewood box on his bookcase. Disposal Ultimately, he dismembers the bodies of his victims into several sections, wraps them and the plastic sheeting in biodegradable garbage bags, then adds rocks from the dock where he keeps his boat as anchor weight and seals them with duct tape. He then takes the wrapped bags out on his boat and disposes of them by dumping them overboard into the ocean at a defined location; in the TV series, his dumping ground is a small oceanic trench just offshore. In one episode, it is inadvertently discovered by scuba divers, so he changes tactics, taking the bodies further offshore, where they will be intercepted by the Gulf Stream and carried out to sea. Category:Concepts